Mars Ingenuity Helicopter re-establishes contact with mission controllers: NASA
A contact between Mars Ingenuity Helicopter and the ground-based mission control team has been re-established with the assistance of the Perseverance rover, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has said. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's 52nd flight took place on April 26 but mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California lost communication with the chopper as it dropped towards the Mars surface for landing. According to NASA, such communication lapses between the chopper and the ground-based team are to be expected.
The Perseverance rover was at a different area from where the chopper had landed, thus the Ingenuity team anticipated the communications failure because of the slope that stood in the way. Between the JPL mission controllers and the chopper, the rover serves as a radio relay. The Ingenuity team had prepared re-contact strategies for when the rover would return to within communication range before this communication failure occurred.
When Perseverance reached the top of the hill on June 28 and saw Ingenuity again, contact was re-established, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in an article on its website. Flight 52 was designed to reposition the helicopter and capture pictures of the Martian terrain for the rover's research team. It was 1,191 feet (363 metres) in length and lasted 139 seconds.
"The portion of Jezero Crater the rover and helicopter are currently exploring has a lot of rugged terrains, which makes communications dropouts more likely," said JPL's Josh Anderson, the Ingenuity team lead. "The team's goal is to keep Ingenuity ahead of Perseverance, which occasionally involves temporarily pushing beyond communication limits. We're excited to be back in communications
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